Lim Yo-Hwan is one of the most successful professional players in the history of StarCraft: Brood War. As the most popular StarCraft player with a fan club of more than 600,000 members and a DVD compilation of his greatest games released in South Korea, he is widely regarded in e-Sports as an iconic figure. Because of his long dominance during the rise of StarCraft’s popularity in South Korea, BoxeR earned the title of The Emperor within the StarCraft community.

BoxeR first came to fame by dominating professional StarCraft while choosing to use the Terran race at a time when this was seen as a relatively weak choice in comparison to the other two StarCraft races. During this early time in his career he innovated heavily, creating many new strategies which are still used today, making much more effective use of the Terran Dropship unit than had been achieved in the past. He also gained a reputation for being able to turn around matches against the odds and having excellent Micromanagement skills. In contrast, his weakness is thought to be his macro-management, at least when compared to other top-level professional StarCraft players.

With the constant innovation he brought to the StarCraft: Brood War, BoxeR has had great influence in the development of modern playing styles, especially for Terran players. He is the all-time leader in games played and won. He is a two time Starleague champion, KPGA Tour champion, two time WCG champion, and also the former captain of SK Telecom T1, a team that was originally built around him with players he hand-picked. One of those players was iloveoov, a fellow Terran, that BoxeR took under his wing and who would eventually become a two time OSL and three time MSL champion. His team has consistently been one of the most successful in the team leagues.

In August 2006, BoxeR announced at the MSL group draws that he had received his draft letter from the government and would be entering the Air Force by the end of the year. He later said he would try his best to return after his 2 and a half years of service.

After he joined the Airforce, he started putting his fame into work, after a month and a half an army progaming team was created, and BoxeR found some retired progamers who joined the army before him, including H.O.T-Forever, Clon, ChRh, fOru, Rage, Qoo)Sunny and MuMyung. Together they formed the first army progaming team ever. After 2 months the team was announced, ACE (Airforce Challenge E-sports) was official, Air Force ACE. ACE’s first team league was the Shinhan Bank Proleague 2007 and has played in every Proleague since.

In December 2008, when his mandatory military service ended, BoxeR returned to the A-team of SK Telecom T1.

BoxeR eventually decided to transition over to StarCraft II, a decision that was made public in October 2010.[1] He acquired amateur status from KeSPA meaning he will not be able to return to StarCraft 1 pro-gaming for up to three years.[2]

On April 16, 2012, it was announced that BoxeR was forfeiting his Code A match due to health concerns. His shoulder has been hurting for over a year and a half and it had gotten to the point where he could not play more than five games a day. As a result, he has decided to take a break from progaming to rehabilitate, assuring that his break is only temporary.[3]

On September 26, 2013, BoxeR stepped down as the Head Coach of SK Telecom T1 due to undisclosed health concerns and was replaced by iloveoov.[4]

On December 6, 2013, BoxeR announced a deal to become a professional poker player and main model for fulpot.org.[5]

Not much is known about BoxeR's play in beta, although it was rumored he shared an account with a friend. Before his tournament debut, he played under the IDs ManOfOneWay and Slayer (Boxer had been taken by the future MarineKing.) During a match against TLO, though, TLO recognized him and professed to being a fan.

BoxeR debuted his StarCraft II career by announcing his participation in the preliminaries of 2010 GSL Open Season 2 just days before they started. He was immediately returned the ID SlayerSBoxeR (which set him apart from MarineKing, who was still playing under Boxer at the time) and awarded the distinction of having "StarCraft I Legend" listed on his pre-match achievement list. He immediately demonstrated a devastating prowess in TvT, eventually taking out NaDa in the quarterfinals with a score of 3-1. He moved onto the semifinals where he would lose to eventual champion NesTea with a surprising score of 0-4.

His move to StarCraft II was filmed by South Korean broadcasting company, tvN. The two-episode series titled, 임요환의 날개(Lim Yo Hwan ui Nal Gae) or BoxeR's Wings, covers his training and preparation before and during 2010 Sony Ericsson Starcraft II Open Season 2. It also details his relationship with South Korean actress Kim Ga-Yeon (Jessica). His first match - in the round of 64 against Hwang Hee-Doo (Happiness) - produced more views on GOMTV than Girls' Generation's Gee music video and caused GOMTV and other sites to crash due to so many people wanting to watch.[6]

BoxeR received a personal sponsorship from Intel at an estimated 200 million won. Additionally, 300 million won was reserved for allowing BoxeR to create a personal "team".[7] Since then, BoxeR announced the formation of the SlayerS clan and team.[8] The first member to qualify for GSL was Jys, also known as Dragon.

It was announced on January 26, 2012 that BoxeR was the new head playing coach for SlayerS.[9]

At the start of 2011, BoxeR played in the first Code S tournament. He defeated both Hyperdub and TheWinD to finish at the top of his group stage. Against Hyperdub, after being already very ahead of his opponent, he built 6 Orbital Commands at one of his expos so that he could maintain an incredibly high income with very few SCVs, and he also dropped mules on tanks, forcing them to unsiege. In the Round of 16, he fell to Tester after a very close game, and then was eliminated by NesTea where he landed his fourth barracks a split second too late in executing his rush, and NesTea's zerglings blocked the landing, forcing an immediate GG. The following season, BoxeR was upset in his group stage going 0-3, losing to San. He went on to lose his up and down matches 1-2 against Zenio and be knocked down to Code A.

BoxeR would make his triumphant return to Code S in the 2012 GSL Season 1, but made a quick exit in the first group stage, placing third with a score of 1-2 therefore dropping down to Code A.

In GSL May, BoxeR won his opening match against Avenge, but was knocked out by aLive in the Round of 16. The following GSL season, BoxeR was knocked out of Code A by asd in the first round. This resulted in a South Korean Article describing the "downfall" of BoxeR, which sparked heavy controversy on the Team Liquid forums as well as other StarCraft related discussion boards.[10] BoxeR, however, after returning to Korea from his third place finish at MLG Anaheim went to the GSL August Code A qualifiers and managed to qualify. In spite of this, he was matched up with Leenock in the first round of Code A where he lost 0 - 2, putting him back into Code B.

BoxeR would once again obtain a Code A spot through the preliminaries of GSL November. He beat Dream in the round of 48 and Virus in the round of 32 with strong 2-0 victories, including a novel Reaper/Hellion/Medivac strategy.[11] He lost to MarineKing in a close 2-1 set in the round of 24, putting him in the Up and Down Matches. There, he went 3-2 in his group. BoxeR defeated TaeJa head to head and lost to asd so, in the last match of the group, he needed TaeJa to win against asd to advance, despite his teammate not having chances of going to Code S -due to tiebreakers rule-. TaeJa managed to beat asd in the last match, securing second place for BoxeR, who went to celebrate his way back into Code S to his booth.

BoxeR's first entry into the international SC2 scene was through his participation in the 2011 Pokerstrategy.com TSL3 as one of the South Korean invites for Terran. In the opening round he beat NightEnD and took out Sen in a best of 5 series 3-2 in the round of 16. He would drop out in the quarterfinals to HasuObs making him alongside MC the furthest advancing South Koreans in the tournament. Afterwards, BoxeR would also be invited to play in the StarsWar Killer 6 tournament and in the debut season of the North American Star League. BoxeR would show off surprising results in his NASL Division which was largely considered the most difficult. He would end the season placing first with an 8-1 record, defeating players such as IdrA and Sen. During the final 16 he would draw MC and see a quick elimination.

BoxeR's first international LAN experience was as one of the South Korean invitees to travel to America for MLG Anaheim alongside his protege MMA, the reigning MLG Champion. This became a notable event as MMA, BoxeR and fellow SlayerS member, GanZi reached the final four. BoxeR gave a dominant performance for many fans by taking first place in his pool, going 5-0 against players such as IdrA, Sheth and SjoW. After winning his pool, he was placed against Rain in the championship bracket. BoxeR took the victory, 2-1, in an extraordinarily long series which featured massive air battles during the first set. BoxeR would subsequently fall against Mvp, leaving him to face elimination against MMA in the lower bracket finals. Although he would ultimately drop a close 1-2 series, this was BoxeR's first significant tournament result since November 2010.

It was announced on Sept 2nd that BoxeR was participating in MLG Orlando, also due to the GSL-MLG Exchange Program,[12] therefore being the first non-champion to be invited, and go, to MLG through the program. BoxeR would place fourth in his group before beating both SaSe and Stephano in the Championship Bracket. In the next round, he would face IdrA, whom he lost to once already in the group stages. IdrA would take the first game of the new series to take a 3-0 lead in the extended series, but BoxeR would pull off some extremely risky tactics using amazing unit control to tie it up 3-3 before losing the last game in a macro game.

Known as the "Emperor of Terran" in Brood War, BoxeR has decided to continue playing Terran for his fans, but hasn't ruled out switching races as the game evolves.

Over 750,000 people tuned in for BoxeR's return in the round of 64 match against Happiness, causing GOMTV and other websites to overload.[13]

For the 2010 tournaments, BoxeR went 0-8 against the Zerg race in his televised matches. BoxeR has gone so far to say in an interview, "The final stage is not important, my TvZ image that I built from my SCBW days is about to collapse. People are saying that I suck at TvZ and I need to fix this as soon as possible."[14] His first Zerg win was in the 2011 GSL Code S tournament in January, taking out coach TheWinD.

Inadvertently gave IdrA the nickname "Grack", which is a mistranslation/mispronunciation of "Greg".

Named, by MTV in 2006, as one of "The 10 Most Influential Video Gamers of All Time."[18]

Named by The Daily Dot as the greatest player in eSports history in August 2013. The top 10 included Moon, Flash, Grubby, Japanese Street Fighter legend Daigo Umehara and American Quake star Jonathan Wendel (Fatality).[19]

Signed a sponsorship deal with Intel during his StarCraft II career to promote their products as optimal for gaming. He consequently guest starred in a commercial for the Visual Life series starring superstar K-Pop group Girls' Generation (SNSD) that featured him playing TvZ against group member Yoona (Im Yoon-Ah) at the top-floor cafeteria of the SM entertainment office in Chungdamdong. It was confirmed that the two exchanged autographs, including Yoona signing BoxeR's keyboard. The commercial was pulled from Korean TV when Intel execs realized that their gameplay footage was a replay of a match with either Min or FruitDealer and that the eSports community would know it, but it is still on YouTube: Yoona’s confrontation with the Emperor of StarCraft II Terran: BoxeR[20]

Appeared with YellOw in a sketch featuring the fictional MMORPG "Counter Strike 2: Imjin War" for the Korean edition of Saturday Night Live.[22]

Does not draw well - a fact that his SKT1 teammates once got a massive laugh out of. During a game of Pictionary during a break, he was asked to draw a hair dryer but inadvertently drew what looked like male genitalia.[23]